I have no doubt that every educator is familiar with the following situation:
"Are there any questions?"
"What is a harmonic oscillator?"
"What is the difference between a metal and an insulator?"
etc.
We ask an (open-ended) question to engage our students and start looking around at their faces in the lecture hall or classroom. Most students seem to look down at their desk or simply stare into space. After what feels like eternity, we decide to break the awkward silence and answer the question ourselves -- or, in the case of the "Are there any questions?"-question, we would say something along the line of "No? Great, let's move on to the next chapter."
Well, it turns out that the above-mentioned eternity on average corresponds to only one (!) second. This has been investigated by Mary Budd Rowe since the 1970s, see for example the following two publications:
- "Wait-time and rewards as instructional variables, their influence on language, logic, and fate control: Part one-wait-time" Journal of Research in Science Teaching (1974)
- "Wait Time: Slowing Down May Be A Way of Speeding Up!" Journal of Teacher Education (1986)
In Rowe's work, when mean wait times of 3 to 5 seconds have been achieved through training, the student response frequency and quality significantly increase. This is true for many types of student/teacher interactions, particularly in higher education settings.
The message of this blogpost is simple: Reflect on your wait time when asking questions in the classroom and give students more time to respond. They will appreciate it and become more actively engaged! You could even say things like "Please take your time to think this through." to encourage the students.
Fun fact: According to her Wikipedia page, Mary Budd Rowe got into science education thanks to an early encounter with Albert Einstein at Princeton University.
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